from 04 may 2003
blue vol II, #80
Feature Archive



What A War Can Buy...

compiled by Jeremy Ross



The cost of a war in Iraq has been estimated by the Bush administration at:

$75,000,000,000.00. But what does this figure really mean? I've investigated what $75B could buy in 2003.

Here is a short list:



(1) Free health care for 50,000,000 people in the developed nations (based on current per-capita expenditures in Canada)
 
 (2) Adequate basic health care for 5,122,950,820 people in developing nations. (based on estimates by Dr Lieve Fransen in 1997 and with 2% inflation incorporated
 
 (3) All undergraduate expenses (tuition and living) in America for:
- 2,709,831 private university students (4,104,416 tuition only)
- 5,840,667 4-year public university students (18,377,849 tuition only)
- 7,171,543 community college students (43,227,666 tuition only)
[source]
 
 (4) 375,000,000 "Simputers" (cost-effective computers for developing nations)
[source]
 
 (5) At least a 17% rise in income for each of the 1.2 billion people estimated to be living on less than one dollar a day.
 
 (6) Habitat for Humanity homes for:
1,875,000 families in America
2,939,332 families in Hungary
3,018,959 families in Romania
29,469,548 families in the Democratic Republic of Congo
30,788,177 families in Sri Lanka
32,552,083 families in Papua New Guinea
35,714,286 families in Guatamala
41,829,336 families in India
[source]
 
 (7) 112,570,356,500 cans of Budweiser beer
 
 (8) 441,176,470,600 handgun bullets ($0.17/each)
 
 (9) 75,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles
 
 (10) 37 B-2 Sprit stealth bombers (plus change for 22 F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters and 10 Joe Millionaires)
 
 (11) 46,875,000,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline (Ohio, March 2003, USA)
 
 (12) 2,616,887,648 barrels of crude oil (March 24, 2003)
 
 (13) Hiring 688,206 top-notch U.N. weapons inspectors for a year.
[source]
 
 
 
 SOME OTHER CALCULATIONS FROM CLAMOR READERS: Drop us a line with your calculation and sources.

(14) The average grocery bill (year 2000 data) for 14,540,520 US families.

(15 ) 40,816,326,530 free school lunches under the national school lunch program
[source]

(16) 937,500,000 pairs of white doves [source], 625,104,184 dozen white roses [source] or 2142857142 pieces of dog shit, with shipping to Iraq [source]

(17) If everyone on earth were to have access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities by 2025, it would cost an additional $75 billion a year. [source]

(18) You could use that $75 Billion to pay Enron's top 200 execs' salary for 5 years! [source]

(19) 750,000,000 Tantric Sex classes yielding the unquantifiable SHOCK and AWE of multiple orgasm. [source]

(20) 3,759,398,496 fifths of wild turkey (washington state, march 2003) or 2,145,923,000 pairs of black carhartts (swain's mercantile, port townsend, washington).

– Jeremy Ross




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